git onto

gistfile1.txt

Suppose you've branched from master like this:

```
master: a --- b --- c
                      \
feature:               d - e
                             \
feature-patch:                f - g
`````

Traditional wisdom says to not touch the `feature` branch now, since that would make it difficult to rebase `feature-patch` onto `feature`.

However, `git` got you covered!

Suppose `master` now introduces commit `x`, and you rebase `feature` onto `master. Your git tree then looks like this:

```
master: a --- b --- c --- x
                    |      \
feature:             \      d' - e'
                      \     
feature-patch:         d - e - f - g
```

`d'` and `e'` are now the same commits as `d` and `e`, but then rebased onto master. As you know, when you now try to rebase `feature-patch` onto `feature` then you're in a world of pain, as git doesn't see that `d == d'` and thus you get conflicts all over the place.


But there's a simple trick to skip this: 

```
git rebase --onto feature e
```

You now tell git to rebase everything onto `feature` that has changed since `e`, which is only commit `f & g`. Git will then simply drop commits `d` `e`, and only try to rebase `f & g` onto `feature`, which should go without much problems:

```
master: a --- b --- c --- x
                          \
feature:                   d' - e'
                                 \     
feature-patch:                    f - g
```

So it's basically a way of saying "checkout feature, and then cherry pick f & g onto it".